Woody
Sheriff Woody Pride (a.k.a. Sheriff Woody; usually addressed as Woody) is the protagonist of the Disney/Pixar movies, Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 and a supporting character of their spin-off media: Toy Story Toons, Toy Story of Terror! and Toy Story That Time Forgot. He is a vintage cowboy doll from the 1950s who belongs to a boy named Andy Davis (later a little girl called Bonnie). Within the universe of the Toy Story films, Woody is a toy based on a character of the same name from a 1950s children's TV series called Woody's Roundup, as revealed in Toy Story 2. She is voiced by Tom Hanks who also played Chuck Noland from Cast Away, Conductor from The Polar Express, Sam Baldwin from Sleepless in Seattle, ''Himself from ''The Simpsons Movie, ''and Captain Miller from ''Saving Private Ryan, '' Background Original concept In the original story pitch of ''Toy Story, Woody had a markedly more distasteful personality; having the character of one whom had let his role as "leader" go to his head and had little compassion towards his peers. One notable example of this from the original script is that Woody actually throws Buzz out the window on purpose, and doesn't care one bit over what had happened or what the other toys thought of the incident, even saying in a casual tone that it was a "toy-eat-toy world" when accused of doing so. He also proceeded to heavily insult the toys, especially Slinky, during this time, which resulted in all of them turning on him and beating him senseless. This choice in characterization for Woody had been forced upon Pixar by then-Disney Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg due to the latter wanting more of an adult, cynical, edginess to the story, resulting in Woody becoming jealous, sarcastic, narcissistic, belligerent, cynical, and mean toward Buzz and the other toys. This nearly led to Toy Story being cancelled after a Black Friday viewing. However, Pixar was given another chance, and over the next two weeks, they reworked the movie plot, giving Woody a more likable and sympathetic character. According to John Lasseter, they wanted the audience to be like, "No, Woody, don't make those choices," instead of just, "Wow, what a jerk." In addition, the change was also brought about because Apple and Pixar co-founder Steve Jobs and the rest of the production team did not like how Woody ended up and decided to change his personality by making him the wise and loyal leader of the toys, and his jealousy over Buzz was more sympathetic. Physical appearance He is slender and fair-skinned in plastic. He has brown eyes, hair hand-painted in brown that is attached to his head in plastic, rosy cheeks, thin brown eyebrows, a yellow shirt with red square outlines, a couple of white buttons vertically on his chest and each matching cuff-link on both his cuffs, cowboy boots made from brown plastic with both each couple outlined cacti on both sides and a black handwriting reading "ANDY" on his right boot sole, spurs made from gold plastic on both sides of his boots, a holster made from brown plastic with a gold brooch with a red center on it, a white vest with black cow spots all over, a red bandanna, blue jeans, a belt made from brown plastic with a buckle that has a bull design on it made from gold plastic, a cowboy hat made from brown plastic with a triangle-shaped brim, star-shaped badge made from gold plastic with small spheres on each tip and a word "SHERIFF" on the center, and a pull string on his back with a white loop attached to it. Woody is 15.18 inches tall without his hat, and 15.93 inches tall with his hat on. Personality Woody is a loyal toy who has been Andy's favorite toy since kindergarten. Woody is determined, passionate, and would do anything for his nearest and dearest friends. He considers everyone on his good side as a family and he tries his best to keep his family together at all times. Yet, he is a flawed character. He has a lot of doubt, anger, frustration, uncertainty, and sadness, almost like a human. But despite his jumbled emotions, he tries his very best not to show them to his friends to seem brave and courageous, but he's not afraid to confront or comfort his friends with utmost care. Interestingly, Woody is arguably the most tactical and developed character in the series, since the plots and ploys that the main characters pull to achieve their own endeavors are more or less formulated by him. This indicates that he is smarter than he, himself acknowledges. His character has developed a lot since the first movie. In Toy Story, when he first meets Buzz, he's very intimidated by the space ranger's more modern appearance compared to his rag-doll appearance. Soon once his jealousy begins to manifest him, he gets this scheme to hide Buzz from Andy so that he can be remembered. Yet when things go awry and Buzz is thrown out the window and into a bush, Woody learns to think twice about his little schemes. His adventurous spirit wasn't intact in the first film as well. When he runs into Sid's mismatched and deformed toys, Woody is instantly frightened by them and comes to this false accusation that they want to eat him and Buzz. Throughout the film, Woody begins to develop a more courageous and adventurous personality. In Toy Story 2, his personality doesn't upgrade much, but he does learn to understand other people's rejections as to why. When he meets Jessie, they instantly become close, but get into a heated argument when Woody is determined to get home to Andy. Jessie accuses Woody of abandoning them and he instantly protests. Yet soon, he has a change of heart when he realizes what a hard life Jessie's had before. When Buzz and the gang arrive to save Woody, Woody stubbornly refuses to leave with them, saying that Andy's growing up and that Andy doesn't care about him anymore. Buzz accepts Woody's fate, but confronts him saying being admired from afar by millions of kids doesn't compare to being loved by just one kid. Without a whole lot of time, Woody makes a promise to himself that Andy's the only kid for him and that he'll be there for him the day he leaves. It isn't a whole long time until Andy is about to depart for college in Toy Story 3, and Woody is also uncertain about his fate after his dear owner leaves, since he is so attached to Andy. After a misunderstanding that they've been thrown away and left on the curb, he and his friends end up in Sunnyside Daycare where they meet Lotso and Ken and other bright faces. Still staying true to his promise to be a loyal toy and too devoted to Andy, Woody decides to leave his friends, who have stubbornly decided to stay at the daycare. When Woody is then taken home by Bonnie and told of Sunnyside's real history, he decides to help his friends home. Yet, out of rage for mentioning Daisy, Lotso leaves the toys at the dump and abandons them in the incinerator to die, even when Woody helped him avoid being killed by blades just to show who the better toy is. Choosing his family over Andy for once, he holds Buzz's hand and closes his eyes as they accept their fate in flames. Luckily, the Pizza Planet aliens save them from a fiery death. As Andy departs for college, Woody suggests that they be taken to Bonnie's for a better life. As Andy drives down the road, Woody sadly whispers, "So long, partner.", but he is ready for a new life with Bonnie too.